


Disaster and the Sublime

by Fallynleaf



Category: All Elite Wrestling, Professional Wrestling
Genre: Canon-Typical Violence, Character Study, F/F, Femslash February
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-02-29
Updated: 2020-02-29
Packaged: 2021-02-28 00:55:04
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 666
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22961290
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Fallynleaf/pseuds/Fallynleaf
Summary: Nyla faces Riho in a singles match for the second time.
Relationships: Riho/Nyla Rose
Comments: 4
Kudos: 14
Collections: Femslash February





	Disaster and the Sublime

**Author's Note:**

> The title comes from [this review](https://www.fanbyte.com/wrestling/a-free-tooth-extraction-for-the-good-of-public-health-aew-dynamite-recap/) of the match, which describes Riho and Nyla's dynamic as _"like they're constantly flirting with disaster and the sublime."_
> 
> I haven't been able to stop thinking about that line all month, so I thought I'd see if I could spin it into a fic.

Nyla doesn’t have weaknesses. She has _a_ weakness, singular, all wrapped up in white and pink frills.

The first time they fought, Riho was a surprise. An unexpected element that caught Nyla off guard.

The second time, Nyla wanted to make Riho hurt for it. She wanted Riho to feel the cold steel of a folding chair as Nyla claimed the title that was rightfully hers. She wanted Riho broken, splayed out in the center of the ring. But if this is David and Goliath, then Riho’s got a stone with Nyla’s name on it, warm in her hand, soaring through the air, her aim flying true.

This time, Nyla is done underestimating Riho. She knows what Riho is capable of, now. All of her tricks and quirks. Nyla didn’t claw her way back up to the top of the hill just to lose again.

 _Your belt belongs to me_ , Nyla thinks. You _belong to me_. _No one else is allowed to beat you_.

Riho is quick. She moves like lightning, striking fast and hard, coming out of nowhere. It’s overwhelming. Sometimes Nyla feels like Riho is everywhere at once.

Nyla dreamed about her, once. More than once.

She could never remember the dreams upon waking up, but there’s a lingering softness to them. She thinks maybe Riho kissed her in one of them. Maybe Riho sat on a table and pulled Nyla close to her and wound her arms around her and held her tight, so tight.

Nyla’s got the table set up. Riho’s running across it. There’s a moment when Riho is suspended in the air, and then they’re colliding.

They’re back in the ring.

The balance of power shifts from one to the other as they trade blows. The advantage is Nyla’s, but she knows better now than to get overconfident.

Riho is strung up on the ropes. Nyla ascends to the top.

These matches always end with both of them having flown. Nyla takes a particular pleasure in catching Riho out of the air. Feeling the lightness of her, the fragility of her.

She likes to feel Riho’s resilience, too. Riho’s body crumpling and folding around the ropes as Nyla’s body slams into hers. Riho always gets up afterward, and there’s always a newfound fire to her, like Nyla awakened something with the impact.

It’s like Riho was waiting for it. Waiting for Nyla to draw the fight out of her.

They’ve been here before. They’ll be here again.

Maybe they’ll just circle each other forever and ever, each match climbing to greater and greater heights, until one day there will be nowhere else to go, and they’ll both come crashing down to the earth. Like the pressure of a body going through a table. Soft, warm, sharp, abrupt.

There’s a finality to tables. Nyla likes that about them. She also likes the _crunch_ of them, the way that they break. Nyla likes to watch things break. And Riho is the most breakable thing of them all.

Maybe that’s it. The reason why they keep coming back to each other. If Riho is Nyla’s weakness, then Nyla wants to be Riho’s. She wants to be who Riho dreams about at night. The subject of nightmares, yes, but there’s a traitorous voice at the back of Nyla’s head that whispers for something more.

Nyla’s got Riho in her arms. She brings her down. Feels the force of her body hitting the canvas.

For how much of Riho is defined by her speed, her body is still as she loses.

Nyla lets go of her and steps off of her. She can hear her own music thundering in the arena as she accepts the belt that should have been hers from the beginning. She stares back at Riho, at her one weakness, lying crumpled on the canvas.

 _Come back to me_ , Nyla thinks. _Come back to me, and I’ll beat you again. But keep coming back. One day, I’ll break you. But not today._


End file.
